Ice box



J. M. RHODES ICE BOX Filed Jan. 16 1924 3 Sheets-Shet l J. M. RHODES ICE BOX Filed Jan. 16 924 3 Sheets-Sheet Z w w p 5 win. w 4 m H 5 I Mrw 1 4 a M E. J

OCEIZB. P924.

3 J. M. RHODES ICE BOX F1196 Jan. 16, 1924 :s Sheets-Sheet 5 5 Patented Oct. 28, 1924.,

JOSEPH MILES RHODES, 0F HALLS, TENNESSEE.

Ion BOX.

Application filed January 16, 1924. Serial No. 686,659.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Josnrri M. Ri-ronns, a citizen of the United States, residing at Halls, in the county of Lauderdale and State of Tennessee, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ice Boxes; and I do hereby declare the following to be .a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use of the same.

The present invention relates to improvements in ice boxes and more particularly in a combined ice box and refrigerator in which such perishables as meats, etc.,will be placed and also bottled goods immersed in cold water.

It is an object of the invention to provide in one piece of store or residence furniture an ice box and a refrigerator and to condense the structure while economizing the floor space and to accomplish these results by greatly reduced expense of the two arti-c viding shoulders for the seating of the covcles.

Further objects of the invention are to provide an improved interior construction in which a good circulation of cold air will be had in all parts of the box, wherein the bottles may be kept cold and immersed but from which they may be withdrawn without requiring that the hands of the operator be immersed in the water; and to provide a device in which quantities of meats and other perishables may be kept separate from thebottled goods and out of contact'with the water chamber in which the bottled goods are contained, although at a lower level with respect to the water chamber in order that the cold air may descend to keep these dry perishables at proper temperature.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention will be more fully described hereinafter, and will be more particularly pointed out in the claims appended hereto. I

In the'drawing's, wherein like symbols refer to like or corresponding parts throughout the several views,

Figure 1 is a front View of a device constructed according to the invention! Figure 2 is a top plan view showing half of the'lid removedQ Figure '3 is a vertical section taken On the line of Figure 2.

Figure 7 is a perspective View of one of the shelves employed.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of one of the trays, and

Figure 9 is a perspective View of one of the partitions. Y I

Referring more particularly to the drawings 9 designates the'bottom which is preferably spaced above the floor by the legs 10 and upon which are erected the end walls 11 and'12, the rear wall 13 and the front wall 14." Thebottom and walls are of heavy thick material or are made double with the air space or insulation between and the interior of the box is lined with light sheet metal in accordance with the usual practice.

At the'top of the walls are strips 15 proers of which there are two shown in the drawings. Beads 16 are mounted upon the strips 15 just outwardly of the shoulders and these beads form enclosures for the edges of the covers. Each co-ver'consists of two sections 17 and 18 spanning substantially onehalf of the top opening of the box and the sections are joined together along their meeting edges by the hinges 19, which construction permits the two sections to be independently lifted for instance as indicated by the broken lines in Figure 1. Handles 20 and 21 are affixed to the sections at or near their outer free ends in order to facilitate the lifting. The inner faces of-the covers are lined with metal 22 as indicated, this metal lining being spaced by the strips 23 from the sections in order to create insulation spaces.

Sections give access'locally to the top compartments or water chamber in which the bottled goods are intended tobe held in trays such as shown in Figure 8. These trays consist of the bottoms 24 having the end walls 25 and 26 and the perforated side walls 27 and 28. The bottom and the end.

walls 'may also be perforated and the end walls carry inwardly extending handles 29 which are out of-the'way of the adjoining walls in the refrigerator so that. they may be easily grasped by the operator and lifted ill) out through top covers when removed. The bottoms 2e: are preferably flush with the lower edges of the walls of the trays and these bottoms of the trays rest directly upon the latticed or false bottoms of which there are preferably three numbered 30., 31 and 32. These false bottoms are loosely placed in the water chamber. The false bottoms and 31 rest upon the fixed bottoms 33 and 34 which extend above the refrigerator compartments and36. Between. the refrigerator compartments is the ice bin 37, this ice bin being sealed against leakage by the metallic lining 38. The bin 37, while cut off completely from the refrigerator chambers 35 and 36 is however open at its top to the water chamber above and the central false bottom 32 extends over the up" per end of the ice bin and serves to hold a central tray directly above the ice bin.

This central false bottom 32 is provided with eyes or sockets 39 to receive the outwardly turned ends 40 of bails a1 which extend upwardly and are adapted to be confined by the metal pieces 4-2 held in place by screws or other fastenings 43 threaded into the strips 15 or other parts.

The refrigerator compartments 35 and 36 extend from the bottom 9 of the box up to the fixed bottoms 33 and 34: of the water chamber and shelves la and 45 are removably fitted in these compartments at suitable points and in suitable number as required by the nature of the goods kept in the box.

The bottom 46 of the ice bin is however spaced considerably above the bottom 9 of the box leaving a central compartment 47 connnunicating at the sides with the lower portions of the lateral compartments 35 and 36 in which also to keep goods of a perishable nature that require dry cold air, and permits free circulation of the cold air.

Now the compartments 35 and 36 are accessible through hinged or other doors L8 or 49 in the front lower portion of the box as shown in Figure 1 and access is also had through these doors to the intermediate space 47 beneath the ice bin.

False end walls 50 and 51 are also pro vided in the water chambers, these false end walls being set inwardly from the permanent end walls of the box and providing air spaces 52 and 53 therewithin for the circulation of air. The false end walls 50 and 51 terminate short of the upper part of the water chamber in order to allow communication with the spaces 52 and 53 and these spaces open at their lower ends directly into the upper portions of the dry refrigerating spaces 35 and 36, although a tight joint is made between the lower ends of the false end walls 50 and 51 and the bottoms 33 and 34 of the water chamber.

A drain pipe 54 extends from the bottom of the ice bin 37 down through the bottom of the box and a stand pipe 55 connects with the bottom of this drain pipe 5%. The stand pipe also connects with the water chamber at a suitable height in order to provide an overflow for the water in the chamber whereby to maintain this water at a predetermined level.

A valve will preferably be included in that pipe 5 L passing through the space 4-7. The valve will control the drainage of water, or this drainage may be controlled by a stopper in the upper part of the pipe 54. The valve is accessible and is used when it is desired to wash out the box or at any time that it becomes necessary to let all of the water out of the box.

Now bottles are stood up in the trays and the trays placed in the water chamber as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The intermediate false bottom 32 is removed. and the chamher is filled up to the suitable level with water. Ice is put in through the top of the box and is forced down in the ice bin 37 by pressure thereon in restoring the central false bottom to position. The bails 41 are then inserted in place and the clips 42 rotated or otherwise caused to engage the same in order to hold the false bottom and the ice in place. The ice is then totally immersed and is not subject to hot air currents. Meats, groceries and the like are placed in the spaces 35, 36 and 4:7 and as the cold will descend these goods are kept at a suitable temperature for preservation in a wholesome state. The cold air from the ice bin will of course radiate laterally and downwardly and the cold air given ofi at the upper part of the water chamber will de scend through the spaces 52 and 53. A very cold condition is thus kept in the box and by opening only one of the sections of the cover at a time small dissipation of the cold air is allowed at each recourse to the box.

In actual practice I had a large ice box for cold drinks and a good sized refrigerator for meats and other perishables. T discarded the two and installed my improved ice box and refrigerator in their place. Iihere the other ice box required 200 lbs. and the refrigerator 100 lbs. of ice each forty-eight hours my new box only requires 100 lbs. for forty-eight hours. A saving of two-thirds in ice, and the improved two-inone box will accommodate the same amount of bottled soda water etc... and a little more meats and other perishables than the other two. The improved box only takes up slightly more than half the space of the other two boxes.

If it should be desired, the water can be allowed to run out of the bottle goods compartment until it is flush with the top of the ice bin, or on a level with the false bot tom of the bottle goods compartment and thus enable the bottle goods compartment to be used for meats and other perishables as well as the refrigerator compartment. In this case the trays could be removed if desired.

There is an overflow pipe opening in the bottle goods compartment at a point above the bottom of said compartment to allow the water to stand at a height on the bottles sufficient to keep them cold. That is, it is intended that the necks of the bottles should stand up out of the water about two inches, thereby enabling one to locate the particular flavor of drink desired instantly and allowing them to grasp the bottle without putting the hand down in the water. This pipe extends down the center of the front of the box and connects with the drain pipe from the ice bin under'the bottom of the box, thereby enabling all the surplus water to be carried away by a single waste pipe. If preferred these boxes can be built with this overflow pipe extending down between the inner and outer wall out of view instead of on the outside.

As shown in Figures 8 and 9 partitions 54 may be placed in the trays, these partitions having side straps 102 and 103 with outwardly and downwardly rolled upper edges 104 in order to rest upon the upper edges of the side walls 27 and 28 of the trays. These partitions are useful for segregating one kind of bottled goods, for instance gingerale from another kind of bottled goods; the cold bottles from bottles that have just been placed in the refrigerator. Of course the partitions may be removed when not needed.

So far as the shelf illustrated in Figure 7 is concerned, this may be made of either sheet metal or wire. A wire shelf is preferred in some cases, but the material is not important.

It is to be understood of course that the box may be made with or without the false walls and 51.

It is obvious that various changes and modifications may be made in the details of construction and design of the above specifically described embodiment of this invention without departing from the spirit thereof, such changes and modifications being restricted only by the scope of the following claim-s.

What is claimed is 1. A combined ice box and refrigerator comprising a cabinet, an ice bin centrally thereof, refrigerator spaces below and at the sides of the ice bin, a water chamber above the ice bin and said spaces and communicating at its ends and at its upper part with the spaces, means for retaining ice in the bin immersed in the water in the water chamber, and means giving access to the water chamber through the top of the cabinet and to said spaces through the side of the cabinet.

2. A combined ice box and refrigerator comprising a cabinet, bottom sections in the upper portion of the cabinet spaced apart, an ice bin below said bottom sections and opening up between the bottom sections, false bottoms placed upon said bottom sections and across the space above said ice bin, trays held upon said false bottoms, false end walls for said water chamber having ventilating spaces behind same and dry refrigerating compartments beneath said bottom sections and communicating with said spaces.

3. A combined ice box and refrigerator comprising a cabinet having a water chamher in its upper portion and an ice bin in its intermediate portion communicating with the water chamber, said cabinet having circulating spaces for the cold air from said chamber to the refrigerating spaces but forming a liquid seal for preventing the water from getting down into the refrigerating spaces, a drain pipe extending down from the ice bin, and a stand pipe connecting with the drain pipe and communicating with the water chamber.

4. A combined ice box and refrigerator comprising a cabinet having dry refrigerating spaces in the lower part thereof, an ice bin in the intermediate part thereof and a water chamber in the upper portion thereof communicating with the ice bin, a cover for the water chamber composed of a number of pieces. each pipe being composed of two sections hinged together and adapted to be lifted independently of one another, each piece adapted to be lifted off as a whole.

5. A. combined ice box and refrigerator comprising a bottom, end, front and rear walls erected on the bottom; doors in the front walls, strips upon the walls forming shoulders. a sectional cover adapted to seat upon said shoulders, beads upon the strips for confining the edges of the cover, an ice bin in the intermediate part of the cabinet, said ice bin opening upwardly, bottom sections at opposite sides of the upper open portion of the ice bin, false end walls connecting with the outer ends of said bottom sections and providing ventilating channels with the end walls of the cabinet, false bottoms held upon said bottom sections, an intermediate false bottom spanning the space above the ice bin, bails carried by the ends of said intermediate false bottom, clips for holding said bails, trays carried upon said false bottoms for holding bottled goods, a drain pipe for the ice box, and a stand pipe connecting with the space above the ice bin for regulating the level of water.

JOSEPH MILES RHODES. 

